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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

Plato

Friday, August 5, 2011

Beckett - Beckett (1974 uk, fine progressive rock with some hard traces)



Beckett Vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser, a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, was to figure in ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's solo outfit Back Street Crawler and was later hook up with Charlie. The vocalist was also known to be in contention during 1980 for the AC/DC frontman vacancy following Bon Scott's death.

Wilson-Slesser had replaced original Beckett singer Rob Turner, the previous frontman having been killed in an auto accident. Soon after this appointment guitarist Les Tones quit. The group's first major performance was supporting UFO at Newcastle's City Hall. Beckett carved out a live reputation by performing residencies at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Beckett , having scored the financial backing of Island Publishing, then underwent a major line-up change.

The band's 'My Lady' single was a clear flexi-disc given away free at gigs in 1974, the same year the band released their eponymously titled album, produced by Family's Roger Chapman, on the Raft label subsidiary of Warner Bros. On the live front Beckett supported the likes of Wizzard, Slade, Free, Ten Years After, Thin Lizzy and The Faces. The band performed at the 1974 Reading Festival, after which they switched labels to CBS Records. For a period Wilson-Slesser was rehearsing with Mott The Hoople musicians following Ian Hunter's exit.

The Beckett concerts with Free would ultimately lead to an eventual union between Terry Wilson-Slesser and guitarist Paul Kossoff in Back Street Crawler. Slesser was known to be in contention for the AC/DC frontman position during 1980 after Bon Scott's death. The singer also acted as backing vocalist on Def Leppard's 'Pyromania' album. The Beckett song 'A Rainbow's Gold' was covered by Iron Maiden as a B side on their 1984 hit single '2 Minutes To Midnight'. That same year Wilson-Slesser acted as an offstage singer for the Michael Schenker Group, performing on a European and Japanese tour.
The Rock Detector


Tracks
1. Once Upon a Time... The End - 0:55
2. Rolling Thunder - 5:23
3. Rainclouds - 5:10
4. Life's Shadow - 6:51
5. New Dawn Chorus - 1:02
6. A Rainbow's Gold - 4:40
7. Don't Tell Me I Wasn't Listening - 5:30
8. Green Grass Green - 4:35
9. My Lady - 3:26
10.True Life Story - 5:36

Beckett
*Robert Barton - Guitar, Vocals
*Keith Fisher - Drums
*Terry Wilson-Slesser - Vocals
*Ian Murray - Bass
*Kenny Mountain - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
*Tim Hinkley - Keyboards

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21 comments:

  1. Σ' ευχαριστώ πολύ Μάριε.

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  2. Nice edition Marios, thanks man.

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  3. Beckett is phenomenal. Thanks for the post.

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  4. fine band saw them live supporting free -always remember they played stairway to heaven very well and had a single called little girl that got fair airplay and was untypically very much pop.

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  5. Hi, gud but heavily orchestrat´d.
    A show of da sympho-rock and wid a li´l bit of "pomp-rock" .
    In dispite newly da UK rock surprizin´kindly.
    Great 4 dis.
    Da copy in flac replaces da old copy from vynil who rollin´in da net sum time ago.
    Dank 4 dis record (four stars)
    MUZICPROG

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  6. this one is new to me.thank you for sharing

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  7. Please provide new link, this one is not working. Thank you.

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  8. THANK YOU MARIOS FOR EVERYTHING!

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  9. Got free my lady flexible disc saw beckett as support act glasgow apollo 1974 can't remember main act think it was wizzard .

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  10. Saw them early 70’s at Sheffield university & Black Swan.
    Bob Harris tipped two bands to make it big on OGWT, Beckett was one, the other was a band called Queen !!!
    If only they had stayed together !!!!!!!!!

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  11. I saw them at 1974 Reading and remember them fondly on OGWT...still have the vinyl LP and now CD...it still sounds superb, esp Rainbows Gold...they were largely overlooked and forgotten quickly..but for me this LP was a landmark.

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  12. Hello Marios.

    Please will you make this album available again ?

    Many thanks

    Michael

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  13. As always Marios, thank you for your kindness.

    Please take extra special care, in this time of corona virus pandemic.

    Thursday 26/03/2020, 3.18pm

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  14. I've bought a lot of music and seen a lot of bands in my 64 years, but NOTHING beats this record. It is stunning in its originality, subtlety, playing and production. Every time I listen to it -- and I'm still listening to it a lot -- I cannot believe how good it is and how so many people don't know it. Everyone I've played it to is just knocked out by it.

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  15. Hello All. Thought I would put the record straight here and there.
    Up until the end of 1972 the band had been primarily a 'covers' band working the North-East club circuit after their German residency.
    I became the drummer in Beckett on Jan 1st 1973 after they had been offered a recording contract with the independent satellite label RAFT: started by staff at WEA. One of the provisos of being signed was that the rhythm section be changed: not a popular - nor comfortable - situation for all concerned, but the 'pot of gold' was visible and hard to ignore. Frankie Gibbon came in on bass.
    All of this success came about because of two factors: 1. Les Tones had been replaced some twelve months earlier by Kenny Mountain - who apart from being a phenomenal vocalist was also an exceptionally accomplished songwriter; and 2. they were seen and adopted by local promoter extraordinaire Geoff Docherty who had a hotline to many of the movers and shakers in the British music industry. As well as the recording contract, Geoff also secured a lucrative publishing deal with Island Music; and obviously much, much more during the following two years.
    In August of '73, Bob Barton replaced Beckett's lead guitarist and introduced a song that became the first recorded release of the band: Little Girl; the B side of which was a Barton-Mountain composition My Lady - subsequently re-recorded for the LP.
    In the spring of '74 we went into Island Studios to record that first LP. One week into the sessions Frankie (bass-player) was sacked by our manager because he had accepted an offer to join Roxy Music when our recording of the album was completed. Unfortunately Geoff insisted on replacing him immediately - with Ian Murray: not a great move for either Ian nor me, but we made the best of it.
    The flexi-discs (some were clear and some were black) were inserted into the programs of the Slade UK tour of Spring '74.
    Bob Barton and I both left Beckett after the Slade tour and during negotiations with Atlantic Records (not CBS), when relations between the band and manager became too unpleasant to tolerate. Most unfortunate: tolerance - at whatever cost - was by-far the better option.
    Barry Black: the drummer from The John Miles Set replaced me for a very brief period, and the band's original guitarist Arthur replaced Bob and stayed a bit longer.
    Re. Iron Maiden: During 1973 we performed at The Marquee Club almost monthly, and two of our dedicated audience were future Iron Maiden members. Also, Maiden's future drummer was playing with Rob Chapman (producer) when he was introduced to the Beckett album and was rather fond of my drumming on Rainbow's Gold; so when he joined Maiden and discovered they were Beckett fans, he suggested they cover the track.
    Regarding Bob Harris's tip for '74: as good a band as Beckett had been, nothing would ever have competed with Mr Mercury's celestial contributions to Queen, and we were never really going to be in the same ball-game anyway.
    I was always too close to the album to really regard it with any degree of objectivity and have been continually surprised by its enduring popularity: to that end… thank-you.

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  16. Got turned onto Beckett recently. This album is incredible! Does anyone know any other recordings or bootlegs that exist?

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  17. Can you please re-upload this album? I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.

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  18. Of Transient Days, "Beckett - Beckett 1974", reloaded...

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  19. I got introduced to this band by a friend in Sussex in 1977, who was a Free / Kossoff nut and I got to love this album. In 1986 I became friends with Bob Barton's sister, Betty, when living & working in London, and was invited up to Newcastle by a close friend of her's for a weekend. Saturday morning up in Heaton (north Newcastle) there's a knock on friend Pete's front door and in walks Bob Barton. nice guy and humble. Needless to say he got a mountain of praise from me for the album etc. Great band.

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